“Can you, as some return for My love, find it in your heart to avoid not only sin, but the infidelities which impede My work in your soul, obstruct My grace and hinder union between us?” What is my answer now? “Can you with the eye of faith see Me in My suffering members, the poor, the sick, the outcast, the unprotected, the little helpless children, and for My sake sacrifice leisure, or ease, or worldly means to succour and serve them?” “Give me the faith, Lord, to recognise You in all these, and in the strength of that faith, _I can_.” “Can you come after Me by taking up your cross daily, the cross I have laid upon you to liken you to Myself?” “Yes, Lord, for beneath will be the everlasting arms. You will not leave me alone, and with Your help, _I can_.” “Can you uphold My cause in the face of ridicule and disgrace, ready, if not glad, to suffer reproach for My name?” “In Him Who strengtheneth me, Lord, _I can_.” “Can you bear to be overlooked, set at naught, despised by the world as one at variance with its principles, as following another leader? Can you bear the taunt: ‘And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth’?” “Look on me, Lord, in hours of trial as You looked on Peter, and sustained by that glance, _I can_.” “Can you drink still deeper of My chalice--the chalice I drained for you--bearing with constancy desolation of spirit and the hiding of the Father’s Face, content to serve Him for Himself rather than for His gifts?” “In union, O my Lord, with Your desolate soul on Calvary, _I can_.” IV. THE SON OF MAN. “I also have a heart as well as you.”--_Job_ xii. 3. Our Lord does quite simply what some of us are too proud to do. He owns to the yearning felt by every human heart for the sympathy of its kind. He speaks plainly of His desire to share His joy and sorrows with His friends, and is at no pains to conceal His need of their support, His gratitude for their devotedness, His distress at their unfaithfulness and desertion. “Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me: that they may see My glory.”[21] “You are they who have continued with Me in My temptations.”[22] “My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with Me.... Could you not watch one hour with Me?”[23] “The hour cometh ... that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.”[24] He comes to a weak woman for her compassion and her help. He asks her to spread abroad among His friends the words in which He unburdened His heart to her, and beg them to come and bear Him company in His life of solitude and neglect. To each one of us He says from the tabernacle: “Stay you here, and watch with Me.... Could you not watch one hour with Me?” Or if not one hour, one quarter? _Stay with Me_ because I am going to offer My morning sacrifice, and men are too busy to assist at the oblation of Myself for them.